Medieval Punks

 

By Manuel Gemperli

I’m not saying you can judge the quality of an album by its cover, but very often you can decipher what style of music you will probably encounter once you put the needle on it. This is especially true for heavy music. A punk album cover doesn’t look like a metal album cover doesn’t look like a classic rock album cover. Usually, you can even guess the era or at least what era the artist would rather be in. Metal nerds (like me) even know the codes for the specific sub- and sub-sub-genres within metal (which for most outsiders just seem ridiculous). Thrash, black, death or even symphonic black, second wave black, vegan folk deathened spicy viking black, you name it - they all have their specific looks. Apparently, this is a language that can be learned at a very young age. I’ll never forget coming home with a copy of Moonlight Sorcery’s debut album and my then three-year old son informed me that this one goes “AAAAAAAH” (how do you type shrieking sounds?). It was a pretty accurate guess. 

 

This proves to be very convenient when flipping through the bins at a record store or – if you are more digitally inclined – sites like Bandcamp. I love it when I check out a record solely based on its artwork and it ends up being amazing. (You also encounter many duds. The ratio is probably less than 50/50.) Based on my prior knowledge I expected some sort of folk black metal with hints of lo-fi 80’s trad metal when I pushed play on Poison Ruïn’s “Hymns From The Hill”. Song titles like “Howls From The Citadel”, “Serpent’s Curse” or “Sleeping Giant” further cemented my expectations. Hell, they even have umlauts on the second “i”. I mean “ï”. I was prepared for some nerdy ass stuff (which often comes with superb metal) because I wasn’t familiar with the band yet. Well, I was wrong. This is a punk album. And it’s a great one. Somehow, it appears that most musicians with an above average interest in medieval stuff tend to go metal. I’m not quite sure why that is. It’s not that there were a whole lot of electric guitars laying around in European castles of the 1300s. Maybe there is some sort of genetic connection between being nerdy about that kind of stuff and being drawn to heavy guitars and double bass. I’m not judging, but I sometimes think that I’m the only person in the world who is obsessed with metal while never having played Dungeons & Dragons. But I have learned to accept some dragons and swords and shit like that as a by-product in my musical diet, because I just don’t wanna miss out on some of those fucking riffs. 

 

So I guess I can accept some medieval imagery and lyrical content in my punk as well. I mean why not? Poison Ruïn crafted a record that sounds immediate and raw as punk should, but they show a well-balanced musicality that sets it apart from average punk fare. There are really interesting ideas, unexpected chords, variety of tempos, and especially quite a sophisticated melodic sensibility without ever veering into poppy territory. This album is an absolute blast. Yes, there are certain hints of old school metal in there as well and that might make it even more appealing to me, but in its essence, this is a fucking great punk album. And the first punk album I personally loved that has a horse and a knight type guy hanging out in the woods on its cover. I love surprises. 

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